page_title: John Lawrence Toole
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: John Lawrence Toole / Life and career / Early career
caption_attribution_description: Men of the Day No.132: Caricature of Mr John Laurence Toole. Caption reads: "A Spelling Bee"
context_page_description: John Lawrence Toole was an English comic actor, actor-manager and theatrical producer. He was famous for his roles in farce and in serio-comic melodramas, in a career that spanned more than four decades, and the first actor to have a West End theatre named after him.
context_section_description: Toole began his acting career by training as an amateur with the City Histrionic Club, beginning in 1850 and by performing in other amateur theatricals and in comic sketches.  He earned good notices, particularly as Jacob Earwig in Boots at the Swan, and soon met Charles Dickens, who had heard of him and came to see him act.  His last amateur role was as Simmons in The Spitalfields Weaver by Thomas Haynes Bayly at the Haymarket Theatre.  Encouraged by Dickens, he made his professional stage debut in 1852 at the Queen's Theatre in Dublin, under the management of Charles Dillon, and by 1853 became the principal "low comedian" at the Theatre Royale in Edinburgh.  His older brother, Francis, acted as his manager throughout his early career.  During the next two years, he performed widely in Ireland and Scotland, gaining a reputation for sunny extemporaneous comedy, humorous expressions and a uniquely comic voice, freedom with his texts, and an engaging rapport with audiences.
  In 1854, Toole made his first professional appearance in London at the St. James's Theatre, acting as Samuel Pepys in The King's Rival, by Tom Taylor and Charles Reade, and Weazel in My Friend the Major by Selby.  There he also played in Boots at the Swan and Honours before Titles.  He returned to the provinces, but by 1856 was engaged in London at the Lyceum Theatre, including as Hilarion Fanfaronade in Belphegor, in which Marie Wilton made her first London appearance.  Thereafter, he frequently performed with Wilton.  In 1857, having had a great success in London as Paul Pry in John Poole's farce of that name, he made his first of many successful provincial summer tours and often repeated the character thereafter.  During this first tour, he met and acted together with Henry Irving, and the two remained close friends over their long careers.  In 1858, he scored a notable hit creating the role of Tom Cranky in John Hollingshead's farce The Birthplace of Podgers.
caption: Spy cartoon of Toole titled "A Spelling Bee" (1876)
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